Post-Pandemic Office Solutions

Are you ready for employees to safely return to the workplace?Due to the new realities of the coronavirus pandemic, the open-plan office must change.
Facilities managers, designers, and building owners need to get ready NOW for your workforce to return safely.
Find out how Good Earth Plants can help you get back to business!

News

We enjoy putting time and thought into our weekly blog posts all year. We’re always curious what blog posts were most popular, so we can deliver more of whatever you enjoy reading most. Sometimes, you like practical advice. Other times, you want a little bit of fun. We won’t comment on the reason why “World Naked Gardening Day” does so well EVERY year.

I’m happy you continue to have interest in interior design trends affecting health and wellness, both at home and in the workplace. There are so many innovative ways now to incorporate nature and plants into your working environment including moss walls, replant plant walls, movable living wall dividers, and unique containers that are more like art pieces than simple pots.

In 2018, your top two favorites both had to do with rain. We had less than four inches of rain in the 2018 water year in San Diego, lower than even our normal low. So not a big surprise that figuring out how to use every drop was on your mind.

This is our full list – if you missed any of them, now is the time to catch up on your reading. You’re welcome!

It’s a question we don’t ask very often in San Diego County. But with a nice rainstorm predicted to last throughout the day, it’s an ideal time to explore this question. Why wouldn’t we want to take advantage of the rainfall to save water and give our indoor house plants a healthy drink and a good shower?

The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it? In general, it is a good idea – but there are some pitfalls you need to know about and avoid.

We get to see a lot of workplaces all year long, and we get to work with a lot of smart architects and interior designers creating the modern workplace. We also talk a lot about what the ideal workplace of the future SHOULD look like when I get together with my fellow interior plantscapers and WELL Building Standard advocates across the country.

Our project for BKM Office Works incorporates many of the hot trends in workplace design gaining traction in 2018.

These are our favorites. We included both fiction films and documentaries. You can watch Discovery Channel and Animal Planet or stream all kinds of nature programs on Netflix or Hulu, but who has that kind of time? Look these up and we promise you won’t be disappointed.

Emperor penguins are the stars of this famous documentary film. Photo by c.Warner Br/Everett/REX (533615u)

This year’s choice could not be more different. It’s the dramatic purple called “Ultra Violet,” AKA Pantone 18-3838. Pantone’s Executive Director Leatric Eiseman said it communicates originality, inventiveness, and creative inspiration “that takes our awareness and potential to a higher level” from exploring the galaxy to spiritual reflection. Wow, that’s a lot to ask from one color.

The Pantone Color of the Year for 2018 is Ultra Violet. It’s present in many natural examples, including these hyacinths. Photo: Creative Commons License

But if you are a little more adventurous – or maybe bored! – there are plenty of other choices. Some require you to give them a little more attention, but not many. We chose our Top Ten most unusual indoor plants for you to consider adding to your workspace.

The ZZ Plant does well inside and provides a lot of green for a little care.

Like a lot of Americans, the Danish approach to life called “hygge” got our attention. The word itself made the Oxford Dictionary’s list of most influential words of 2016, that’s how popular it was. Suddenly it seemed like everyone was interested in lighting candles and gathering around a cozy fire. Hygge is as central to Danish culture as flamenco dancing and tapas are to Spain, and teatime is to England. But it’s not the only lifestyle trend hitting America from Scandinavia.

With views like this, who wouldn’t be inspired to embrace nature in the friluftsliv way?

Finding a substitute for plastic is difficult. It’s lightweight, strong, heat resistant and cheap. The alternative? “Bioplastics” made from natural plant sources like corn, potatoes, tapioca, and sugar. The bioplastics industry is growing, which is great news, because it’s up against the oil industry.

The beaches I visited in Costa Rica are spectacular. But I found plastic trash on every single one. Photo: Ted Mumford

Human beings have such a profound affect on our planet including the plants living on it. We are responsible for agriculture, deforestation, and climate change. It forces plants to adapt to the conditions we are creating. Sometimes they aren’t able to stand the stress. This is something we share with plants. It’s wise for us to keep studying plants and how they are evolving for a clue to how we might be evolving.

Bullying isn’t good for people or plants. Photo: Khamkhor/CreativeCommons license

We can thank the Sixties for a lot of things: some of the world’s best music, the American space program, and the rise of political activism. But we also have to hold the 1960s responsible for the open office floor plan the majority of working Americans are subjected to in 2018.

Movable living wall dividers can transform an open office floorplan into a more inviting, productive workspace.

During my 40 plus years bringing nature into workplaces, homes, and many other places, there have only been a handful of game changer type products or concepts. Even though I came around more recently to building green roofs (2007) and living walls, (2009), their origins go back thousands of years. The modern versions of green roofs were developed in Germany in the 1960s, and living walls in France in the late 1970s. Since then, they have spread to most countries.

This changed a few years ago when “moss walls” came along.

A close look at our beautiful new living moss walls, which will be available later in 2018 at Good Earth Plant Company.

Since we started our blog in 2013, these are all top blog posts all time: